DIY Animatronic Skulls

A common animatronics project is a 3 axis skull (3 axis simply meaning it can rotate, nod and tilt). Many years ago I stumbled onto a thread at Halloween forum (started by Halloween Bob) describing his skull project. This thread has went on for a good 10 years and has a huge amount of information for anyone interested in making one:

https://www.halloweenforum.com/threads/my-3-axis-skull-in-progress.62161/

This is a PDF summary of a fair bit of the thread:

http://rewindshow.com/skull/3_axis_skull.pdf

Here is a build document from DavisGraveYard for a Bucky skull version:

http://www.davisgraveyard.com/Building%20a%203-axis%20Bucky%20Skull.pdf

And an updated one:

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/38513603/detailed-hand-out-davis-graveyard

And some information on installing servos in a Bucky skull:

http://www.scary-terry.com/buckyservo/buckyservo.htm

Of course the first thing you need is a skull. The most common skulls used for these projects is a Bucky Skull (which is an anatomical correct model used for medical studies) or a Lindberg Pirate Skull model (which are no longer made). Both these skull have a removable skull cap which makes it easier to install the mechanisms but doesn’t look all that great. Here is a site that sells various skulls that may work:

http://skeletonsandmore.com/securecart/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1435

Nelson Bairos (who wrote the Trackskull and Helmsman applications for VSA) put together a great how to on modifying the skull of the Home Depot 12 foot skeleton. He has even included the files for making the 3D printed parts. 

https://hackaday.io/project/181103-3-axis-skull-mod-for-12ft-skeleton

Here is another example of how someone setup animatronic control of a Home Depot 12 foot skeleton:

https://youtu.be/vx0rZ4HhRrM

This is a Instructable that has some good general information on skull building:

https://www.instructables.com/Automated-Talking-Skull/

Files for a 3D printed skull:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3658843

Cat Alford has a ton of videos on building animatronics and is doing occasion live stream seminars. She also has her own design for controlling skull movement:

https://www.youtube.com/c/CatsMenagerie

A good thread showing a pan & tilt style mechanism and more details of Halloween Bob’s rack and pinion design:

https://www.halloweenforum.com/threads/3-axis-skull-build.140771/

A Jawduino based design by Bat Buddy that includes a MP3 player:

https://www.hauntforum.com/threads/new-design-for-a-3-axis-skull.39931/

http://batbuddy.org/resources/Halloweenstuff/ThreeAxisSkull.php

https://www.hauntforum.com/threads/batbuddys-arduino-3-axis-skull-controller.46370/

This is a pretty in-depth build video on using servos and brackets to give 3 axis control to a store bought skull :

https://youtu.be/xagMjcDtVXY

A new video from Eric and Andy that shows how to make a 3-axis gimbal mount for a skull:

https://youtu.be/YyPDg06hX0U

I always check out the various props available around Halloween as some are suitable for adding servos.

There are also commercial offerings but the can be quiet pricey, though many companies have come and gone over the years so I don’t imagine there is much money in the animatronic skull market. Least not for the thrifty hobbyist… There used to be a few companies that sold various parts kits for the mechanisms but I not aware of any still in business.

You will find that most of the DIY mechanism designs have the 3 servos pushing against a central pivot. While this does allow for movement you will find that the servos tend to fight each other and affects each others range. The commercial offerings use a more complicated rack and pinion style mechanisms that are more expensive to produce but give a much better range of movement. Check the Halloween Skulls build videos for a view of the guts.

A Raspberry Pi based talking skull  project that includes 3D printer files for the skull and eyeballs:

https://www.electromaker.io/project/view/halloween-animatronic-skull

Not a talking skull but a Raspberry PI based CV (computer vision) project to have a servo controlled head track people walking past it:

https://www.instructables.com/Motion-Tracking-Michael-Meyers/

Another tracking project this time with a mask using a thermal camera module:

https://youtu.be/4ESjNbYZQHg

An Arduino based talking skull school project:

https://github.com/LetsCodeBlacksburg/arduino-talking-skull

A very good write up on making your own Arduino based skull controller:

https://tooz.us/skippy-and-the-skulls.html

Here is a project to make a 3D printed pirate style skull and crossbones. There is a YouTube video and a blog post with the files to build it:

https://youtu.be/xUqWcVA0eaI

https://randommakingencounters.com/diy-animatronic-talking-pirate-skull-and-crossbones/

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:819046